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The Palestinian state that America and Europe are pressuring Israel to help create by surrendering its biblical heartland will be a repressive dictatorship on par with the region's worst regimes, according to a leading Palestinian official.

Western statements regarding the peace process always focus on securing freedom, dignity and prosperity for the Palestinian Arabs. But the truth is that the Palestinian Authority itself is doing far more than Israel to deny these rights, said Mohammed Dahlan, a former PA security chief and member of the Fatah Central Committee.

Dahlan has filed an international lawsuit against Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, whom Dahlan claims is "out to get him."

Dahlan is seen as a potential leadership rival, and has threatened to provide evidence exposing the vast corruption that continues to plague the Palestinian Authority.

In the lawsuit, which was filed by an Israeli firm with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Dahlan accused Abbas of "tyrannical behavior the utter corruption of which, along with the corruption of his family, is damaging to the Palestinian people and the [PA's] institutions."

In remarks carried by Israel's Yediot Ahronot daily newspaper, Dahlan continued, "In practice, government in the authority is a tyrannical rule of one person — Mr. Mahmoud Abbas — and all of the [PA's] institutes, its budgets and international relations are nothing other than means available to Abbas and his family, and their financial, political and personal interests."

In fact, that is very much how Abbas' predecessor and mentor, Yasser Arafat, ran the show before his death in 2004. Arafat was widely criticized and even condemned for his less-than-democratic ways, while world leaders, including Israeli President Shimon Peres, continue to heap praise on the "moderate" Abbas.

There are mounting efforts to convince the US government and the European Union to stop funneling billions of dollars to the Abbas regime in light of both its ongoing corruption, and its refusal to meet basic peace commitments, like recognizing Israel's right to exist.

"Shut off the foreign aid to the Palestinians," demanded American pastor John Hagee on Tuesday during a rally in Washington hosted by his pro-Israel movement Christians United for Israel (CUFI).

Over the past year, Israeli Messianic lawyer Calev Myers has appeared before the EU parliament and campaigned in North America to bring a halt to the foreign funding of a Palestinian government that will only perpetuate conflict.

Myer's Jerusalem Institute of Justice has an ongoing effort on behalf of Palestinian human rights, the chief violator of which is the Palestinian Authority itself.

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